Daily online-readings until the end of the crisis.
Poetry and prose against the crisis – for as long as it lasts. Thomas Friedmann, the director of the Literaturhaus Salzburg, has launched the “Live reading” series, in which Austrian authors
read from their texts and current books via Facebook stream. In order to remain in people’s heads even in times of the Corona crisis, and also to encourage the audience to listen and follow up.
Every day at 8:00 p.m., a writer enters the live stream and gets into a dialogue with the audience. Birgit Birnbacher, last year’s winner of the Bachmann Prize (which this year will take place digitally for the first time) already read from her novel “Ich an meiner Seite”. Gudrun Seidenauer noted that she misses the direct contact with the audi- ence and is becoming unusually nervous. Stefanie Sargnagel returned to the platform where her writing career took its origin and Helena Adler noticed “I can see me. I can’t see you.” All live streams are available on the Facebook page of the Literaturhaus.
In the next few weeks, readings by Katharina Johanna Ferner, Luna Al-Mousli, Martin Aman- shauser, Yasmin Hafedh, Julya Rabinowich, Anna Baar, Eva Rossmann and Sandra Gugic are planned, among others.
Friedmann encourages the readership to sup- port writers and publishers, especially now. He asks to buy books directly from local booksellers with their online shops and not from Amazon, who is one of the main winners of this crisis
and draws the greatest profit from the writers’ intellectual and creative work.
Performed literature of young poets
Not only readings, but also performed literature by young authors is available for at home. The U20 Poetry Slams, which are organised by the Literaturhaus Salzburg, are listed in an online playlist of the Salzburg Community TV FS1. The poets, who are all under 20 years old, are given six minutes to present their texts. Any kind of performance, whether it’s rhyming, rapping or telling stories is allowed, but without technical aids.
Even though the online readings and videos cannot replace live events or literature festivals, Friedmann sees the situation as an opportunity to get more people interested in literature across the country and to contribute to the survival of the literature scene in challenging times like these.
Literaturhaus Salzburg Read Live
daily at 20.00pm
www.literaturhaus-salzburg.at facebook.com/LiteraturhausSalzburg
U20 Poetry Slams
on FS1
fs1.tv creativeaustria.at/u20slam
Online Book shops in Salzburg
creativeaustria.at/onlinebuchhandlungensalzburg
Radio Literaturhaus
every second Sunday on radiofabrik.at
